Bicycles are becoming a more popular form of transportation in the United States, emulating the popularity of such human-powered transportation in other parts of the world. A frequent scenario, however, is that bicycle trips involve small children who are not readily carried on a bicycle, and who are too small to ride either a separate cycle or a trailing cycle. To this end, a variety of bicycle trailers have been developed, whose primary purpose is for carrying children, however, the trailers also serve as utility trailers for carrying cargo, camping equipment, the family pets, etc.
One of the most successful collapsible bicycle trailers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,814, to George et al, granted Jun. 4, 1991, for "Collapsible Bicycle Trailer." While this particular bicycle trailer has met with great commercial success, it is somewhat labor intensive to manufacture and requires the removal of the wheels for compact transport and storage.
Berner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,634 discloses a convertible infant stroller and trailer which also includes a metal tubular frame and which, to be completely collapsed, requires the removal of the wheels therefrom.
Bell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,577, and Britton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,316, both disclose trailers with tubular metal frames which require the removal of the wheels for the collapsing of the trailer. Britton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,746 discloses a trailer which incorporates a pan structure to form a solid bottom to the trailer, which pan structure which fits over a conventional tubular frame.
The aforementioned bicycle trailers, while suitable for their intended purposes, all involve many parts and removal of the wheels for transport and storage.